Ad Team at UA One of Four to Implement Campaign

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s student advertising team’s campaign for the 2009 American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition is one of four selected by The Century Council to implement and further explore potential effectiveness of student-generated campaigns to prevent binge drinking on college campuses across the nation.

The Century Council, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking, will support the implementation of several of the ideas presented at the AAF’s 2009 National Student Advertising Competition by UA, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, The George Washington University and Ohio University.

UA’s ad team placed second in the national competition with its “LessThanUThink” advertising campaign. Based on the team’s research, they developed a campaign using humorous messages and consisting of posters, print and Web advertisements, an interactive Web site and more.

As a follow-up to the competition, The Century Council’s goal for supporting these four schools is to test the effectiveness of these highly creative executions in reducing rates of, and ultimately stopping, dangerous overconsumption of alcohol on campus.

The selected universities will use grant funds provided by The Century Council to: establish benchmarks measuring current levels of dangerous overconsumption of beverage alcohol; implement an agreed upon group of tactics; conduct follow-up research and report their findings.

“Issues related to under aged drinking and alcohol abuse are of paramount concern to university administrators across the nation,” said Dr. Judy Bonner, UA executive vice president and provost. “We are all searching for ways to help students understand the risks they are taking.

“We are extremely pleased that the 2009 ad team’s AAF-NSAC campaign, “LessThanUThink,” captured the attention of The Century Council. We believe that this campaign will resonate with college students and can increase knowledge and change attitudes regarding alcohol.”